Solar Cycle Reading Order

I’ve noticed this question gets asked a lot on Reddit. So I’ll lay it out here.

1.  If you read The Book of the New Sun and didn’t like it or you’d give it mixed reviews, try The Fifth Head of Cerberus. It breaks the envelope of “the novel” in a different but equally fundamental way.

That was me. Fifth Head recontextualized The Book of the New Sun for me. I went from seeing Wolfe as an amazing world creator but a so-so writer to seeing him as the greatest SFF writer period.

If you’re an adult and your reaction is still mixed, Wolfe might not be your thing. Honestly. You might enjoy and respect Wolfe but you probably won’t get hooked.

2.  If you loved it and want to read the rest of the world, here’s the order;

a) The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator,

^ both in Shadow & Claw

The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch

^ both in Sword & Citadel

b) Endangered Species (collection)

Contains “The Cat” and “The Map” set in the Severian's Autarchial period and a lot of other great stories. Also a Brown Book story, “The God and His Man.” In particular "The Cat" has vital information about Father Inire's mirrors and what happened when Jonas stepped into them. It also includes the fuller story of the old man in the Antechamber who was sent there for creeping on a young chatelaine -- where Severian shouts "The Dowager of Fors!"

c) Starwater Strains (collection)

Contains the Brown Book story “Empires of Foilage and Flower” which Severian references to the Cumaean at the end of Claw of the Conciliator. Also, a secret Urth story “From the Cradle”.

d) Castle of the Days (Castle of the Otter section)

A lot of great essays about New Sun, including one where the characters of the novel tell jokes. Also, Wolfe’s own definitions of some of the words in “The Book of the New Sun.” The other two sections can be read at leisure: one is another collection of essays and the other is a very fine short story collection.

e) Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe

The first half of this book is interviews with Wolfe. Particularly useful is “Interview: Gene Wolfe ‘The Legerdemain of the Wolfe’ “ by Robert Frazier (1983) where Wolfe describes Severian physically and psychologically in detail. The second half is essays by Wolfe on the craft of writing (that can be read HERE)

The book is out of print but it can be bought for $15-30 at Google Play. 

f) Urth of the New Sun

I’d recommend rereading the Book of the New Sun first—starting with the final chapter in Citadel of the Autarch.

IMO this is not “the rest of the story.” It’s “the further adventures of a character in “The Book of the New Sun.” It could as logically have been written from the perspective of Agia or the Cumaean or Hethor. But it does wrap up and clarify some significant gaps in “New Sun.” Not all , or even most though. And it initiates some new puzzles of its own.

g) The Book of Long Sun

Nightside of the Long Sun, Lake of the Long Sun

^ both in Litany of the Long Sun

Calde of the Long Sun, Exodus from the Long Sun

^ both in Epiphany of the Long Sun

The first half of a single 7 volume novel. Like any Wolfe novel, the end will make you reevaluate the beginning and your new perspective on the beginning will make you reevaluate the end.

h) Innocents Aboard (collection)

Includes “The Night Chough,” a story that takes place in a period in the first volume of The Book of the Short Sun when Oreb flew away for “nearly a year.” This is also my favorite collection.

i) The Book of the Short Sun

On Blue’s Waters, In Green’s Jungles, Return to the Whorl

The end of the Solar Cycle — or is it the beginning?!!

j) An Evil Guest

Although not in the Solar Cycle world, this novel offers a reevaluation of Jolenta, Typhon, and the Megatherians. It’s in the same world as the novella Memorare and the horror story in Innocents Aboard, “The Tree Is My Hat.”

- James